Tickets blocked for private airlines

K.C. Venugopal, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, was in for a surprise on 4 January. When he arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram airport to board an Air India Express flight to Kochi, he was flooded with complaints that the flight’s tickets were not available. When the minister boarded the flight he found that 23 seats were vacant even as passengers were running around the airport booking tickets on expensive flights. He did not get any satisfactory explanations from Air India employees on the matter. He later found that certain Air India officers had blocked the release of the tickets to help some private airlines make money. Two Air India officers, Kalyani Atre and Marie Bernascone have been suspended. More heads will roll after further inquiry.